22.01.2010
Hearing of EU's New Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas
Members of the Transport and Tourism Committee of the European Parliament heard this morning Commissioner-designate for Transport, Estonian Siim Kallas.
Questioned on his portfolio and the fact that Commission President Barroso decided to allocate State aid responsibilities for transport to DG Competition, Mr. Kallas said that he would have been happy to keep State aid matters under his portfolio but added that in the end State aid decisions remain collegial decisions and that he would be ready to put up a strong fight for issues that were of key importance to transport. The Commissioner-designate referred concretely to State aid guidelines for shipping, where he agreed that it was important to keep shipping interests under European flags and to defend European policies that facilitate maritime transport. He referred concretely to a “maritime package” which would be presented next year.
Responding to a specific question from liberal MEP Dirk Sterckx how this would apply for ports, Mr. Kallas said that he had “no information” on guidelines for State aid in ports but that State aid in any case should be temporary measures which cannot last for long.
Port state aid guidelines were however announced in the Commission’s 2007 Ports Policy Communication and reconfirmed in the 2009 Maritime Transport Strategy Communication. “It is a public secret that interpretations on the application of State aid rules to ports differ within the Commission and that this has been the reason for the ongoing delay in the production of the guidelines”, said ESPO Secretary General Patrick Verhoeven in a first reaction, “With the announced shift of State aid responsibilities to DG Competition, I am not sure where we stand now. It will definitely be the first issue we will take up with the Commissioner-designate once he has taken office.”
During the hearing, Mr. Kallas generally explained his priorities for the coming mandate, including the review of Europe’s transport policy up to 2020. Completion of the internal market remains an important priority in this context, including for railways, together with high standards for services in terms of safety and environment. Decarbonisation of transport was an important objective and a legal framework for internalisation of external costs would be forthcoming, a concept to which the Commissioner-designate said to be strongly committed. Mr. Kallas however added that it was not his objective to make transport more costly.
The Commission will also review guidelines for Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T) including a revision of the financial framework which may include the set-up of a European infrastructure investment fund. The Commissioner-designate said that he would like to concentrate TEN-T support on fewer and bigger projects so as not to waste resources. Responding to questions from socialist MEP Knut Fleckenstein and Christian-democrat MEP Dominique Vlasto on the role of seaports in TEN-T, Mr. Kallas said that different situations existed in different ports and he pointed at the example of North Sea ports such as Hamburg which had developed good co-modality with rail. He believed that the concept of Green Corridors needed to be explored in this respect, including all modes of transport and abolishing all barriers that slowed down the good functioning of ports. He added that southern ports were generally not performing as well as northern ports and needed to be made more dynamic, increasing also their competitiveness towards North-African ports.
Commissioner-designate Kallas particularly confirmed support for the Common Maritime Transport Space without Barriers but was sceptical about the political room for reviewing IMO decisions regarding Emission Control Areas in the Baltic and North Sea that would create a level playing field for the whole of Europe.
Overall, reactions from MEPs after the hearing of Mr. Kallas seemed at first sight fairly supportive. The series of parliamentary hearings continues until 19 January and Parliament is expected to give its overall blessing to the incoming Commission on 26 January. It is not certain how difficult this decision will be, given that a number of Commissioners-designate heard so far were given an incomplete evaluation.
The hearing of Mr. Kallas can be reviewed on the webstie of the European Parliament.
